Book Launch: Gathering Fictions: A Dialogue on Painting

Co-published by the Varley Art Gallery of Markham and the Woodstock Art Gallery
Texts by Anik Glaude, Emily McKibbon, Niamh O’Laoghaire, and Mary Reid

About the Book

The publication, Gathering Fictions: A Dialogue on Painting, is launching on January 27, 2024. This bilingual (English and French) catalogue is produced to accompany an exhibition of the same name mounted at the Varley Art Gallery in summer 2022, and scheduled for the Woodstock Art Gallery in 2025. The catalogue delves into the diverse works of Janet Jones and Michel Daigneault. The richly illustrated publication juxtaposes Daigneault’s complex interior spaces with Jones’ cosmic, technology-infused creations, revealing not only their distinctive artistic processes but also their shared roots in Montreal. In-depth conversations between Curator Anik Glaude and the artists, along with insightful essays by Emily McKibbon and Mary Reid, provide a deeper understanding of their commonalities and unique approaches.

Janet Jones and Michel Daigneault are contemporary painters who question and challenge our understanding of abstraction. Aware of and informed by historical and formal definitions of the genre, they see abstraction as moving beyond specific movements to convey broader meaning today.

Both artists look to abstraction as a way to explore different realities, or as modes of perceiving what is true and what is not. Both employ similar methods– layering, patterning, and collage–to assemble their narratives from a diversity of sources. The resulting paintings, however, differ significantly in scale, imagery, and intent. Established artists, York University professors, and peers, Jones and Daigneault intentionally cultivate a collegial relationship that thrives on debate, on creating space for dialogue that permits both different ideas and approaches to art making to flourish.

Purchase is available both in person at the Varley Art Gallery front desk or online.
To purchase online, visit HERE.

About the Artists

Janet Jones was born in Montréal, Québec. She received her BFA in painting and photography from Concordia University – studying painting with Guido Molinari and Yves Gaucher. She is currently a Toronto based painter whose work has been exhibited across Canada, in Los Angeles, New York, England, Germany, France and China. Her recent projects include: the solo exhibition, The Dream Machine at Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Montréal (2017), participation in the Montréal Painting Biennale 2020, two solo exhibitions, Playtimes (2015) and Joyride (2012) both at Katzman Contemporary Toronto, a national touring exhibition of her paintings, DaDa Delirium, with an accompanying catalogue (2011) & participation in the Empire of Dreams exhibition, MOCCA (Summer 2010) curated by David Liss. Jones has been a visiting artist in France, England, Russia, China, the Netherlands, and Cuba. Jones received her MFA from York University and her PhD from New York University in art theory and criticism. A Professor in the Department of Visual Arts, York University, Toronto, where she teaches painting, she has been Chair of the Department of Visual Art & Art History and Director of the MFA/PhD Program in Visual Arts.

Janet Jones is represented by Patrick Mikhail Gallery, Montréal.

Michel Daigneault was born in Montréal, where he completed a B.A. in Visual Arts and Art History and Philosophy at Concordia University and the Université de Montréal. He later studied Visual Arts and Art History in the graduate program at Hunter College, New York, and completed his Master’s degree at the Université de Montréal. Daigneault is currently living and working in Montréal and Toronto where he teaches at York University. His work has been widely shown in Canada, the US and France and it is part of many museum and corporate collections, notably the National Gallery of Canada, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée des beaux-arts du Québec, and the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal. He received the Pollock-Krasner award in 1995 as well as several grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. He was awarded the Paris studio in 1994 and the P.S.1 studio in 1988 from the Canada Council for the Arts. His work was recently part of the C’est ainsi qu’entre la lumière, an exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

Daigneault joined York University’s Visual Arts Department in 2002. His previous teaching appointments were at Ohio State University; Columbus, Nova Scotia College  of Art and Design, Halifax; Emily Carr School of Art and Design; Vancouver; and the University of Lethbridge; Alberta. He also taught at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Québec and École nationale supérieure d’arts de Cergy Pontoise in France.

Associated Program

Winter Exhibition Opening Reception
Saturday, January 27, 2024 | 2 PM to 4 PM | Free | Registration not required.

Join us in celebrating the opening of the exhibitions Lost and Found and A butterfly flaps its wings, and the book launch for Gathering Fictions: A Dialogue on Painting. Meet the artists, join tours, and enjoy delightful food and music.

Bus transportation from downtown Toronto (Spadina and Bloor) to the Gallery is available subject to capacity. To register, please contact Alessandra Pozzuoli at APozzuoli@markham.ca.